PS 165 at TC's Urban Science Education Gardening Project

Elaine Howes, Assistant Professor of Science Education and faculty member with TC's Urban Science Education Center, started an Urban Gardening Project at Manhattan's PS 165 on Saturday, November 23rd. Schoolchildren and their families planted bulbs around trees in front of the school and in the playground.

Elaine
Howes, Assistant Professor of Science Education and faculty member with
TC's Urban Science Education Center, started an Urban Gardening Project
at Manhattan's PS 165 on Saturday, November 23rd. Schoolchildren and
their families planted bulbs around trees in front of the school and in
the playground.

"We
are most interested in enhancing the science experiences that children
experience in school. We want to open up opportunities for them and,
perhaps, to continue on with science careers. Our goal is to make
science more personally accessible, culturally relevant, and empowering
for urban children," said Howes. "We work with community organizations
such as Greenthumb and HarlemLive in our efforts to enrich children's
and families' science experiences. Our gardening effort is an
especially promising community-based project."

The
planting on November 23rd was the first step in developing a garden
space at PS 165. This is part of a collaborative project between the
Urban Science Education Center, the Harlem Middle School for Math and
Science (HMSMS) and PS 165, both District 3 schools. The garden at
HMSMS, like the garden at PS165, will ultimately become a learning
garden so that older youth continue to learn about urban ecology,
environmental health, and plant growth and development. The garden will
also provide younger children with a model of how older children have
accomplished and study similar curricular issues-with support from the
students and teachers who create and maintain the gardens. "This is
more fun than video games," said one second grade boy.

The
children from both schools will visit each other's gardens and the
long-term plan is to have children and teachers from both schools
communicate with each other in person and electronically about the
science concerns that emerge from their respective gardening projects.

This
project has grown out of the interest of the principals, teachers,
Teachers College students, and of the children themselves, who have
expressed excitement and interest. The gardening projects are part of
the Urban Science Education program at Teachers College, which provides
teacher education students with rich opportunities to collaborate with
schools and to practice teaching in ways that are not confined by the
standard curriculum of classroom life.

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PS 165 at TC's Urban Science Education Gardening Project

Elaine
Howes, Assistant Professor of Science Education and faculty member with
TC's Urban Science Education Center, started an Urban Gardening Project
at Manhattan's PS 165 on Saturday, November 23rd. Schoolchildren and
their families planted bulbs around trees in front of the school and in
the playground.

"We
are most interested in enhancing the science experiences that children
experience in school. We want to open up opportunities for them and,
perhaps, to continue on with science careers. Our goal is to make
science more personally accessible, culturally relevant, and empowering
for urban children," said Howes. "We work with community organizations
such as Greenthumb and HarlemLive in our efforts to enrich children's
and families' science experiences. Our gardening effort is an
especially promising community-based project."

The
planting on November 23rd was the first step in developing a garden
space at PS 165. This is part of a collaborative project between the
Urban Science Education Center, the Harlem Middle School for Math and
Science (HMSMS) and PS 165, both District 3 schools. The garden at
HMSMS, like the garden at PS165, will ultimately become a learning
garden so that older youth continue to learn about urban ecology,
environmental health, and plant growth and development. The garden will
also provide younger children with a model of how older children have
accomplished and study similar curricular issues-with support from the
students and teachers who create and maintain the gardens. "This is
more fun than video games," said one second grade boy.

The
children from both schools will visit each other's gardens and the
long-term plan is to have children and teachers from both schools
communicate with each other in person and electronically about the
science concerns that emerge from their respective gardening projects.

This
project has grown out of the interest of the principals, teachers,
Teachers College students, and of the children themselves, who have
expressed excitement and interest. The gardening projects are part of
the Urban Science Education program at Teachers College, which provides
teacher education students with rich opportunities to collaborate with
schools and to practice teaching in ways that are not confined by the
standard curriculum of classroom life.